What are they? I have a visual in my head of a kingdom, but it's really just like, a castle, with some villages outside… What is the actual scope of a kingdom? How many castles? My story is vaguely based on medieval times, but more advanced (alternate reality in present time if they advanced differently than us) so there's a kingdom right where Pennsylvania would be. How big do I make this kingdom? How many people are in it? Funny how when you go to write something you realize how little you actually know about it….
The main defining feature of a kingdom is that its rules by a monarch (king or queen) and the rest is up to interpretation, really :)
Kingdoms can be set up very differently, but one general set-up is that the king gives land ("estates") to different lords, who will take care of the land (often renting it out to nobles who in turn have peasants work it for them) and pay the king back in loyalty, and occasionally taxes (again, it depends on the system).
Castles definitely aren't limited to Kings. Especially in medieval Europe, any old lord who wanted to live in a fortified residence would get permission from the king and be able to build a castle. I don't think theres really a limit on the population of a kingdom. I definitely recommend checking out various historical kingdoms - it doesn't have to be limited to Europe either! Any society with a monarch at the top is automatically a kingdom.
So you can really just set it up however you want!
Thanks! This actually helps a lot. Now the issue is considering what lies beyond the boundaries of the kingdom…. The world has to exist outside of my plot somehow XD
Logically, there's still a functioning world out there, right? So you'll want to keep that in mind while you write. If anything of note happens in the outskirts, it may be valuable to consider someone mentioning it in the kingdom, and thus your story.
